Starcrossed Conception
by Osiris-Ra
Summary: The fate of the Asgard race may lie in the starcrossed conception of two very special people.


**Starcrossed Conception**

**By Osiris-Ra**

"Breath Sam...come on kiddo, breath! That's right, come on! Breath in...out... in...out...in, that's it! Good girl! Out..."

Slowly she came in from total darkness. A bright light stung her eyes as she struggled to both breath and blink. Slowly, her visual haze cleared and she could make out the warm face of a man standing over her, his forehead dotted in sweat. She realized she was hot too – and aching. A kind of cold sweat clammed up her body and made her clothing stick to her. She fidgeted but found every movement caused her pain. Her whole body ached horribly from the torso up, a throbbing pain that shot through the bone. Slowly, she passed out...

"Sam, come on – no. Wake up Sam. Sam, I need you to push! Come on! Push! Sam...Sam..."

* * *

A tray clanged on the floor. Sam's eyes jolted open. Her cornea was instantly stung with the unpleasant sensation of 140 watts of light searing into her eyeballs. Her eyes watered up. They felt like they were burning. She closed her eyes and slowly felt them grow cool again.

A baby cried out. A cry of anger and hunger. As the sound began to register in her ears; Sam perked up and opened her eyes. The lights seemed cooler now. Slowly she took in her surroundings. She was in a large square white room with low ceilings. It seemed like an ordinary medical hospital room. There was a smell of cleaning fluid and sounds coming from the hallway through the open door. She could see various doctors come past and other patients wandering down the halls, peeking into room after room. But there was something odd about the room which she couldn't quite place.

A nurse was bent over, cleaning up the contents of a spilled chrome tray in the corner. Sam noticed an odd sort of glow around the woman. A glow which she noticed was throughout the room. It was even in what she could see of the hall. She rubbed her eyes, hoping it would go away. But it didn't. The nurse rose from her backbreaking position and made her way with a full cart of laundry and other paraphernalia to the door.

"Nurse?" Sam stopped her. The nurse acknowledged the quiet voice that addressed her.

"Yes, can I help you?" She inquired gently. Sam, still unsure said vaguely:

"Can you tell me where I am?"

"Skillman Hospital. Maternity Ward."

A pang of apprehension ran through Sam's body.

"Maternity Ward?"

"Yes." The nurse replied. "Oh - by the way, congratulations."

The nurse smiled gently and inquired if Sam wanted any water or food. Sam didn't answer. Her eyes had run slowly across the room and landed in disbelief on her stomach which was as flat as ever. She put a hand to her belly and rubbed it gently. Suddenly, she felt a vaguely familiar surge of life run through her, and could almost remember - faintly at best - a round, taught belly, almost bursting with life. She remembered little eerie tummy rumbles, like small feet perhaps, kicking against her belly wall. Unconsciously, a tear rolled down her cheek. She couldn't remember what had happened - and at the same time she could. The nurse inquired, with concern at Sam's present blank appearance, if she was alright. Sam looked up suddenly as the nurses voice bleeded back into her ears and nodded a vigorous 'yes'. The nurse smiled and left.

Sam leaned back into her pillow, trying desperately to remember anything. All she could seem to come up with were vague memories of a man with a gentle smile and big, sweet eyes which smiled at you even if his lips didn't. There was something about him that struck Sam. Neither positive nor negative. It was the same as the feeling she got from her surroundings. Where was she? She couldn't remember getting here, she couldn't remember anything. Nothing fit. Her head hurt trying to separate one odd detail from another. She rubbed her temples, trying to mute the throbbing pain in her head. At that moment, a baby screamed again, hungry for warm motherly arms, warm milk, a tender touch. Sam sat up, ignoring her headache and without quite knowing why she was doing so, padded out of the room.

* * *

The hall seemed unnaturally bright and cavernous. Doctors busily holding charts flitted past. Other maternity patients in wheelchairs rolled past. All to Sam seemed to be smiling at her or mouthing their congratulations. Overcome by a sudden breeze against her back - Sam quickly clenched closed the open back of her hospital gown. She found a rack laden with the garments and slipped one on backwards. As she tied the strings around her waist securely, she noticed from the corner of her eye a doctor approaching her. He had dark hair with a hint of a superman curl, glasses and a smile to go with. She remembered him somehow. As a worried face without the glasses standing over her.

"I see you're up Samantha. Feeling better, huh?" He said cheerfully.

Sam smiled a little and nodded meekly.

"Yeah, I was just looking around."

The doctor nodded attentively and said with a little frown,

"How are you feeling? Any more pain? Did the sedatives help calm you down a little bit?"

Sam didn't remember sedatives. Pain, yeah.

"Uh, yeah. They worked like a charm."

He smiled broadly. "Good, good! I suppose you'll want to see your baby now, naturally."

He took her gently by the shoulder with a coaxing smile. They headed down the hall. On noticing her fidgeting with the back part of her gown, he humorously noted how hospital gowns let terrible drafts in.

Sam was stuck on baby. What baby? How could she have a baby? She hadn't been with a man for...a while. And even so, she was more careful than that. A baby... a baby... who's cruel joke was this?

After quite a bit of walking down hall after hall with the doctor making one sided conversation with a few rhetorical questions sprinkled in, they approached the nursery. Sam could smell the comforting scent of baby powder and warm, fresh linens. The doctor was full of smiles as he showed her the endless rows of babies from behind the nursery window. Sam felt her stomach again, hoping to get some kind of flash that would explain how she got to where she now was. The doctor – after a bit of talking which Sam hadn't been paying attention to – said, pointing, "There she is."

Sam looked where he pointed to see, nestled comfortably between dozens of other square white cribs, wrapped like a tortilla in a pink blanket, a wriggling, gurgling little wonder. A sweet faced little baby girl whose bright, newborn eyes instantly locked with its stunned, enthralled mother's. The doctor said in admiration,

"Hair's just as dark as her fathers."

At this, Sam perked up and said to the doctor wide eyed,

"Was he here?"

The doctor nodded.

"Mm hmm. He came to check on you and the baby. Then he had to leave for some pressing business. He very busy, isn't he?"

He grinned at Sam expectantly. Sam forced a nod.

"Oh – he left you a card..." The doctor continued, pulling out a pink and white card from his jacket pocket. It was a Congratulations On Becoming A Mommy greeting card. Sam opened it and read the spiky cursive note scribbled on it.

'_With love and joy. Darling, congratulations on bringing a new life into this infinite universe. I love you so much. _

_Thor.'_

Sam looked at the doctor.

"Thor?" She said, somewhat surprised. She didn't know a Thor. Only Thor she knew was short and grey with huge black eyes and a huger space ship. He certainly didn't have hair...

"Very nice guy." The doctor complemented. "Very watchful – and patient. Very busy though." The doctor frowned a little. Then, back to jovial, he said, "You'll be wanting to see your baby. Just right in through there and she's all yours." He took her hands and said with a smile, "And again, congratulations." He briskly walked off.

Sam made her way into the nursery towards the crib labeled "Carter". As she drew closer to the newborn, Sam's disbelief turned into shock – then joy. She gently lifted the baby from the cradle and nestled her in her arms. She was so small, yet heavy for her size. She had perfect little eyes and perfect little cheeks and a perfect little nose. Sam let the baby grasp onto her comparatively gargantuan pinky finger. She felt the little fingers squeeze and squeeze and instantly, those 20 little fingers and toes and two little shimmering dark blue eyes and two toothless rows of gums had a titan hold on her heart. She cooed at the baby and tenderly kissed it's forehead. She had everything she'd ever wanted right here. Despite her confusion, she was happy to be lost, right here, in this baby.

* * *

Elsewhere, another pair of eyes looked on lovingly at Sam. The two eyes blinked solemnly.

Four long grey fingers gently caressed the side of her cheek. Thor slowly raised his head as he looked on at her, lying sleeping peacefully. She was dressed in loose black, blue and white striped pajamas and her arms were crossed loosely over her stomach. She was lying on a silver cot surrounded by various technical equipment of Asgard design. Several small chrome devices were pressed into her temples which pulsated with small red dots of light. Thor admired how soundly she slept, and how peaceful she looked. He could look at her like this for a long time.

Someone cleared their throat. Thor broke from his entrancement to look up. Hiemdall smirked at him from over the other side of the cot.

"If you can take your eyes off her for a moment, I need your assistance distributing the DNA samples."

Thor had forgotten about the important job at hand. He made his way over to Hiemdall and took two of the silver colored tubes she was holding. Raising them up, he exhaled briefly and efficiently poured the contents of one tube into the other.

"DNA solution is stable. Prepare the intra-siphon and grease her for extraction."

Hiemdall pressed a button on a portable console she was holding. Slowly, a long metal pole-like object lowered from an apparatus in the ceiling. The end was flat and had some sort of clear instrument in the center which resembled a suction. Thor lifted up Sam's shirt to uncover her belly button. The foot of the pole landed square over Sam's belly button and clamped in. There was the hissing sound of a suction event. The tube foot squirted out a clear, thick gel which oozed out from all sides. Hiemdall, who was busy on a larger console, narrated the progress of events.

"Now penetrating for extraction. Life signs stable. Temperature stable. Heart rate point 10 percent above normal. Blood pressure rising point 7 increments. Now beginning stage 4 extraction in 120 seconds."

Hiemdall looked up, satisfied. She came down from the console deck and stood near Thor. He was looking down at Sam with his large, slowly blinking eyes. Hiemdall put a hand on his shoulder.

"You _are_ doing the right thing, commander. For you. For our race. If this implantation is successful...of which I have no doubt, we will be able to begin anew."

"Yes." Thor said flatly. "Our race will no longer have to survive by cloning." He turned to Hiemdall.

"Is it not possible that she should be able to keep the child?"

"I am afraid you know the answer to that question as well as I commander." Hiemdall replied matter-of-factly. "We must keep the resulting product of this experiment to further study it. Or the experiment will have been for nothing."

Hiemdall leaned in closer. "You were the one who chose her. I have all faith that you know what is best, commander. But do not allow your feelings for the human cloud your judgment. Do not think of it as a child parented by you and the human, but as the future of the Asgard race."

Hiemdall headed back to the console. Thor knew she was right. The Asgard at the moment had to come first. This child could be their only chance at survival. Sam was his only hope...

Hiemdall forewarned in the background,

"Suction event in 30 seconds."

The green Asgardian numerals on a holo-screen ran down;

"All sanitation spheres holding allotted containment pressure. Commencing ..."

_SLURP_! Sam's body lurched, but there was no pain on her face. Thor closed his eyes, exhaled again...

* * *

Sam jolted awake. She sat straight up. Her head was dotted in sweat and she was taking big gulps of air. She was shaking. What a dream.

She splashed water on her face. Turned off the water. She looked at her wet reflection and smoothed back her ruffled hair. The dream started slowly flooding back. The hospital. The doctor. The baby. The baby... her hand went to her stomach. Flat. toned. Cold. She closed her eyes.

"_No, it can't be real...can't be..."_

She opened them. Flicked off the lights switch and padded back to bed

The remainder of the night she stayed awake, contemplating the meaning of her dream. She felt unsteady, not quite herself. Her hands stayed at her belly, rubbing, rubbing, rubbing, and tracing gentle circles around a strange circular indent around her belly button.


End file.
